“PENNY DREADFUL” (2006)

Starring: Rachel Miner, Mimi Roger, Michael Berryman, Lucy Rogers-Chiaffa, Elyse Mirto & Liz Davies
Written by Richard Brandes, Diane Doniol-Valcroze & Arthur Flam
Directed by Richard Brandes

Polly Staffle Rating: ***

Almost all books on screenwriting say the same thing about the basic three-part structure of movies. First, establish a hero. Second, force this main character up a tree and throw rocks at them. Third, get them down from the tree.

Sure it’s a bit simplistic, but if you think about it, most good movies follow this. The really great ones, however, know how and when to deviate from the rules.

“Penny Dreadful” follows the three-part structure quite literally. As soon as the film opens we are introduced to Penny Dearborn (Rachel Miner of “Cult”). We learn her back story and her flaws immediately. Penny was in a car accident as a child and now suffers from mentally paralyzing anxiety because of the trauma. She is petrified of riding in cars.

Penny is currently heading on a road trip with her psychiatrist. They are close to a breakthrough. Stress ball in hand and audio exercises in the stereo system, Penny looks to return to the scene of the accident, while trying to kick her dependency to anxiety medication.

Soon Penny will become an active member of society. She’ll be able to ride in a car without full blown panic attacks that lead to her barfing or becoming hysterical. Well, that’s what Dr. Orianna Volker (Mimi Rogers) thinks. But this isn’t an inspirational film. This is one of the eight movies of Lionsgate’s After Dark Horrorfest. So soon Penny’s fears are exploited by a mysterious hitchhiker that Dr. Volker picks up along their journey. Instead of being forced up a tree and having rocks tossed her way, poor Penny gets trapped in the car, sandwiched between two trees with dead bodies being thrown at her. As silly as that may sound, this part of the film works perfectly.

In fact, for most of its 92-minutes, “Penny Dreadful” is a terrific movie. It’s original and extremely scary. Then the villain is revealed in the last five minutes or so and things get wrapped up in a generic cookie cutter horror movie way that left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Penny gets out of her predicament. Not necessarily in one piece, but she still gets out of her “tree.” Then we get a very cliché “oh, there may be a sequel” ending and the credits roll. If only director Richard Brandes had decided to have his ending slightly deviate from the three-part structure, but follow the slasher subgenre, he may have had an instant classic on his hands.

As is, the script, which was written by three people, stays close to the “bad horror movie” genre we’ve seen too much of lately. You know what I’m talking about, the third act plot twist that isn’t really a twist, followed by the “super dud closer” that has the villain popping back up for one last scare.

Here’s the thing, I didn’t need to see a villain in this film. A mysterious cloaked hitchhiker early on that doesn’t talk and offers a human kabob from the back seat is way scarier than any reveal you are going to serve up later. The figure being seen even less the rest of the way works just fine. I also didn’t need to have a half-assed explanation about them slapped on via radio news. However, I feel that if the makers of this film just had to have their villain revealed, they should have at least made it believable. I’m not buying it. No way this little creep moved dead bodies and sandwiched the car between those trees. How long did it take to find two trees that were the perfect length apart, by the way?

I’m not even sure I needed Penny escaping her situation and I surely didn’t need the story closing like it does here. A psychological victory for Penny may have been enough. As is, “Penny Dreadful” has our hero escaping without any type of transformation and very little confrontation. Horror movies that end with psychical victories need their frail and weak characters transcending into strong individuals. Penny doesn’t. She never gets a chance to kick ass. Penny just sort of slips out of her ordeal without having to put up a fight. She gets off easier than Sally in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” did. But don’t worry, it’s a false escape and Penny is put back to where her miserable night started – in an automobile with a killer right outside. We can assume, more torture ensued for Penny once viewers were safely back in their own worlds.

Despite its flaws, this is a pretty good movie. Rachel Miner, one of my favorite actresses in the under 30 crowd, is fantastic as usual. Take her out of the film’s mix and this thing collapses like an imploded Las Vegas casino. She cries, she screams and she makes us feel her fear and terror. This might very well be the Scream Queen performance of the year. Most of the movie is simply her in the car, surrounded by darkness, while evil lurks around outside.

But personally, I don’t want to watch a girl squirm and be tortured emotionally for the length of a feature film. Let’s have Penny overcome by kicking the crap out of this sick freak. There’s so much tension building during this film that it really needs a release. Can’t Penny get down from her “tree” by grabbing a tire iron, a jack or some other object commonly found in the trunk of cars and proceed to bash the psycho’s brains in? She could even get creative like Marie (Cécile De France) in “High Tension” and pull a wooden stake from the ground, wrap barbed wire around it and start smacking.

But no. What do we get? Penny terrorized till the last frame. She never even gets a chance to visit the site of her childhood accident to bury her fears in the past. What happened to the days of horror films that left audiences inspired, pumped up and ready to tackle the real scary obstacles of society? “Penny Dreadful” had the perfect opportunity to deliver this, but instead went with the current trend of the genre. Is it just me, or is the overdose of “Saw” sequels and “Hostel” wannabes completely screwing up the fun of horror?

- CCF, April 2007